When I first heard that this documentary was about corn, I
thought to myself “oh brother, here’s another one of those monotonous dialog containing
films. The second thing that crossed my mind was how on Earth people could make
an hour and half film about the crop that shaped America, (physically and
economically). In my opinion, Family Guy conveyed the message of corn very
accurately in this side scene.
I had no clue that of all things, that corn would be as
important as it actually is. There is even a nationally recognized Corn Palace located in Mitchell,
South Dakota. Visit it here at: http://www.cornpalace.org/
One of my favorite quotes from the documentary was when
it was mentioned that this is the first generation to have the possibility to
not out live our parents. I think that is sad because it is solely based on the
American diet, which is completely filled with high-fructose corn stuff. If
Americans were more aware of their diet, then maybe the rates of heart disease,
diabetes, and obesity will slim down. Another quote that that interested me was
towards the end when it was said that: “we live in a generation that maybe has
too much.” Then, the next clip was perfectly portrayed when it showed the
mountainous pile of corn kernels. Just imagine how many people one of
those piles/silos of corn could feed.
I agree with you! Before watching, I knew about high fructose corn syrup, but that was it. Corn is in almost everything! It's given to cattle which makes them sick since they can't properly digest the amount they're given. It certainly takes a toll on our health too as you mentioned. Like you, I was also expectecting this documentary to be monotonous but I enjoyed it. I like the Family Guy clip you posted too!
ReplyDeleteI think that there are probably a lot of Americans who want to eat healthier, but can't because it's too expensive and/or hard to get. I can't imagine that anyone honestly believes that junk food is healthy, but it's so cheap and plentiful that it's hard to avoid. Maybe if the economy were better, more people would have the resources to eat better, but as it is, most people are on very tight budgets, and junk food and fast food have been catering to that demographic for a while.
ReplyDeleteIts kind of sick to think that we have these huge excesses of corn while there are starving men, women and children all over the world that would do anything for a bit of that corn. The amount we use to produce ethanol and feed to our livestock far exceeds what we actually consume.
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